Blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction: serial killers in the context of dark tourism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/THJ.2022.4.4Keywords:
Dark tourism, film, literature, serial killers, toursAbstract
Serial killers fascinate people and books, films, TV series and other types of entertainment increasingly cater to this interest providing sensationalized media coverage. The theory suggests that the boundaries are blurred considerably between fact and fiction, even for the serial killers themselves. For many people, serial killers are both frightening and attractive enough to motivate them to go on tours and visit sites, museums and other attractions that are associated with them. This paper explores the motivation for consuming true and fictional crime including murders and serial killing with an emphasis on literature, films, TV series as well as tourism. A content analysis of the websites of walking tours, museums and other attractions connected to fictional and real serial killers was undertaken, as well as a questionnaire with a niche sample of respondents who commented on their experience and perceptions of serial killers within a dark tourism context. The results suggest that while tourists tend to prefer real serial killers to fictional ones, only a small number of tourists actually engage in this form of dark tourism. Their motivations tend to be more connected to education or entertainment rather than a morbid obsession with death or tragedy.
References
About Jack the Ripper Museum (2021). Tripadvisor. Retrieved 20 September 2021 from https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g186338-d8638694-Reviews-or10-Jack_the_Ripper_Museum-London_England.html
Andrew, L. (2019). Dr. Lucy Andrew and Capturing Jack the Ripper: The Ripper Mythos 130 Years On. Rippercast: The Whitechapel Murders Podcast [Podcast]. Retrieved 4 May 2020, from http://www.casebook.org/podcast/listen.html?id=219
Biran, A., & Poria, Y. (2012). Re-conceptualizing dark tourism. In R. Sharpley and P. R. Stone (Eds.), The contemporary tourist experience: Concepts and consequences (pp. 62-79). Routledge.
Boutique du Vampyre (2021). Vampire Adventures. Retrieved 7 August 2022 from https://boutique-du-vampyre.myshopify.com/pages/about-us
Call, C. (2019). Serial Entertainment: A Content Analysis of 35 Years of Serial Murder in Film. Homicide Studies, 23(4) 362–380. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767919841660
Carrabine, E. (2011). Images of torture: Culture, politics and power. Crime, Media, Culture, 7(1), 5–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659011404418
Cettl, R. (2003). Serial killer cinema: An analytical filmography with an introduction. McFarland.
City of London Police Museum (2021). City of London. Retrieved 25 September 2021 from https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/guildhall-galleries/city-of-london-police-museum
Cult of Weird (2022). See where Ed Gein’s house once stood, Plainfield cemetery and more. Retrieved 5 October 2022 from https://www.cultofweird.com/crime/ed-gein-roadtrip-plainfield
Cook, G. (2017). Literary Serial Killer Fiction: The Evolution of a Genre, Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 24 October 2022 from http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/handle/10063/6735
Dann, G. M. (2005). Children of the dark. In G. J. Ashworth and R. Hartmann (Eds.), Horror and human tragedy revisited: The management of sites of atrocities for tourism. Cognizant.
Dark Tourists (2020). Cachtice Castle, Home of the “Blood Countess” Elizabeth Báthory. Retrieved 5 October 2022 from https://darktourists.com/cachtice-castle-home-of-the-blood-countess-elizabeth-bathory/
Dearly Departed Tours (2021). Dearly Departed Tours. Retrieved 23 September 2021 from https://dearlydepartedtours.com/
Dowler, K., & Zawilski, V. (2007). Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption. Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(2), 193-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.01.006
Flood, A. (2020). Whitechapel Mural Will Celebrate the Lives of Jack the Ripper's Victims. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2021 from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/10/whitechapel-mural-jack-the-ripper-victims-the-five-hallie-rubenhold
Gallagher, A. (2012). Harry’s Haunts. The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 August 2022 from https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/europe/harry-s-haunts-1.497448
Gibson, D. C. (2014). Serial Killers Around the World: The Global Dimensions of Serial Murder. The University of New Mexico.
Greer, C., & Jewkes, Y. (2005). Extremes of otherness: Media images of social exclusion. Social Justice, 32(1), 20–31.
Halttunen, K. (2001). Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination. Harvard University Press.
Harrison, M. A., Murphy, E. A., Ho, L. Y., Bowers, T. G., & Flaherty, C. V. (2015). Female serial killers in the United States: Means, motives, and makings. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 26(3), 383–406. https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1007516
Hartmann, R. (2014). Dark tourism, thanatourism and dissonance in heritage tourism management: new directions in contemporary tourism research. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 9(2), 166-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2013.807266
Hermann-Grima and Gallier Historic Houses (2021). Where You’ve Seen Us. From Anne Rice to American Horror Story. Retrieved 10 August 2022 from https://hgghh.org/where-youve-seen-us
Hickey, E. W. (2016). Serial murderers and their victims (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Hidden City (2021). Moriarty’s Game. Retrieved 12 August 2022 from https://www.inthehiddencity.com/london/moriartys-game-the-professors-invitation
Hodgkinson, S., Prins, H., & Stuart-Bennett, J. (2017). Monsters, madmen… and myths: A critical review of the serial killing literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior 34, 282–289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2016.11.006
Jack the Ripper (2021). Prater. Retrieved 26 September 2021 from https://www.praterwien.com/nc/en/attractions/details/a/jack-the-ripper/
Jack the Ripper Museum (2021). Jack the Ripper Museum. Retrieved 23 September 2021 from https://www.jacktherippermuseum.com/
Jang, K. Y. (2016). Louis the Plantation Owner: The Haunting of Vampiric Slavery in Interview with the Vampire. American Fiction Studies, 23(1), 220-247.
Jenkins, J. P. (2022). Ed Gein: American serial killer. Britannica. Retrieved 5 October 2022 from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ed-Gein
Jenkins, P. (1994). Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide. Transaction Publishers.
Konstanje, M. E. (2016). The rise of thana-capitalism and tourism. Routledge.
Konstanje, M. E., & George, B. (2017). (eds) Virtual traumascapes and exploring the roots of dark tourism. IGI Global.
Krimfestivalen (2022). Hjem. Retrieved 16 August 2022 from https://www.krimfestivalen.no/
Krueger, J. (2021). The Cecil Hotel. Morbid Tourism. Retrieved 2 October 2021 from https://www.morbidtourism.com/locations/id/60d286a9a248fe0017eb473e
Light, D. (2007). Dracula Tourism in Romania Cultural Identity and the State. Annals of Tourism Research, 34(3), 746–765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2007.03.004
Light, D. (2017). Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research: An uneasy relationship with heritage tourism. Tourism Management, 61, 275–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.01.011
Literary Tours in Egypt (2020). Agatha Christie Tours in Egypt. Retrieved 9 October 2022 from https://literarytoursegypt.com/agatha-christie-tours
London Theatre Direct (2021). Sweeney Todd Tickets. Retrieved 16 August 2022 from https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/sweeney-todd-tickets
MacDonald, A. (2013). Dissecting the “Dark Passenger”: Reading Representations of the Serial Killer. In A. MacDonald (Ed.), Murders and Acquisitions (pp. 1-14) https://doi.org/10.5040/9781628928211.ch-001
Markezic, E. (2022). True crime tourism: The good, the bad and the Bundy, ESCAPE. Retrieved 5 October 2022 from https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/north-america/usa/true-crime-tourism-the-good-the-bad-and-the-bundy/news-story/f8fd8859f0ede988126e1f66f36feaa0
Murder - The Exhibition. (2021). Tripadvisor. Retrieved 14 September 2021 from https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g274887-d3752902-Reviews-or10-Murder_The_Exhibition-Budapest_Central_Hungary.html
Museum of Death New Orleans (2021). Google. Retrieved 14 September 2021 from https://www.google.com/search?q=new+orleans+murder+museum&oq=new+orleans+murder+museum&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i19i22i30.9687j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x8620a60c063ddb8d:0x9e023a6d8578ffb1,1
Museum of Death (2021). Museum of Death. Retrieved 14 September 2021 from http://www.museumofdeath.net/
Online-utility.org (2021). Finds Most Frequent Words of the Web Site Content (or Arbitrary Text). Retrieved 13 September 2021 from https://www.online-utility.org/text/frequent_words.jsp
Pallardy, R. (2021). Elizabeth Báthory. Britannica. Retrieved 10 September 2021 from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Bathory
Peay, M. (2022). Critics of Netflix’s controversial ‘Dahmer’ open up about lack of ‘respect’ they felt. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 October 2022 from https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-09-30/netflix-monster-jeffrey-dahmer-story-controversy-victims-eric-perry-rita-isbell
Phegley, L. (2017). Fiction and Reality: Serial Killers as a Product of Postmodern Fiction, ESSAI, 15(31). 100-107. Retrieved 4 October 2022 from https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol15/iss1/31
Philbin, T., & Philbin, M. (2009). Killer Book of Serial Killers. Sourcebooks, Inc.
Picart, C. J., & Greek, C. (2003). The compulsion of real/reel serial killers and vampires: toward a Gothic criminology, Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10(1), 39-68.
Police Museum (2021). Google. Retrieved 18 September 2021 from https://www.google.com/search?q=budapest+police+museum&biw=1462&bih=794&sxsrf=AOaemvIfi_deSrtmttn0rpuWDbwUbL7hVw%3A1634149352659&ei=6CNnYa-9J5GK9u8Ppcia2As&ved=0ahUKEwiv0bLdgMjzAhURhf0HHSWkBrsQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=budapest+police+museum&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EA
Rarick, D. (2009). Serial Killers, Literary Critics, and Süskind's "Das Parfum", Rocky Mountain Review, 63(2), 207-224. Retrieved 4 October 2022 from https://www.jstor.org/stable/25594403
Rendőrmúzeum (2021). Rendőrmúzeum. Retrieved 18 September 2021 from http://www.rendormuzeum.com/fooldal
Sather-Wagstaff, J. (2016). Heritage that hurts: Tourists in the memoryscape of September 11. Routledge.
Seaton, A. V. (1996). Guided by the dark: From thanatopsis to thanatourism. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 234-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527259608722178
Schechter, H. (2003). The serial killer files: The who, what, where, how, and why of the world’s most terrifying murderers. Balentine Books.
Seaton, T., & Dann, G.M.S. (2018). Crime, Punishment, and Dark Tourism: The Carnivalesque Spectacles of the English Judicial System. In P. R. Stone, R. Hartmann, T. Seaton, R. Sharpley and L. White (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies. Palgrave Macmillan
Stone, P. (2006). A Dark Tourism Spectrum: Towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions. Tourism: An Interdisciplinary International Journal, 54(2), 145- 160.
Ten Bells (2021). Ten Bells. Retrieved 18 September 2021 from https://www.tenbells.com/
The Book Trail (2021). The Way of All Flesh. Retrieved 4 October 2022 from https://www.thebooktrail.com/book-trails/the-way-of-all-flesh/
The London Dungeon (2021). The London Dungeon. Retrieved 19 September 2021 from https://www.thedungeons.com/london/
The Memorial (2021). Rose South LA. Retrieved 18 September 2021 from http://rosesouthla.org/the-memorial/
The Secret City (2021). Highgate Cemetery. Retrieved 19 August 2022 from https://thesecret.city/things-to-do/united-kingdom/england/london/highgate-cemetery/
Tzanelli, R. (2016). Thanatourism and cinematic representations of risk: Screening the end of tourism. Routledge.
Ungarisches Haus (2021). Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 18 September 2021 from https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ungarisches-haus-hungarian-house
Vienna Crime Museum (2021). Google. Retrieved 18 September 2021 from https://www.google.com/search?q=criminal+museum+vienna&oq=cri&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j35i39j69i60l3j69i65j69i60.922j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x476d07a66c95ced5:0x619fb974079dd036,1
Visit Stockholm (2021a). Bellmansgatan 1. Retrieved 4 August 2022 from https://www.visitstockholm.com/o/bellmansgatan-1/
Visit Stockholm (2021b). Stockholm City Museum. Retrieved 4 August 2022 from https://www.visitstockholm.com/o/the-city-museum-of-stockholm/
Waade, A. M. (2021). Screening the West Coast: Developing New Nordic Noir Tourism in Denmark and Using the Actual Places As Full-Scale Visual Mood Boards for the Scriptwriting Process. In N. van Es, S. Reijnders, L. Bolderman and A. Waysdorf (Eds.), Locating Imagination in Popular Culture. Place, Tourism and Belonging. Routledge.
Warwick, A. (2006). The Scene of the Crime: Inventing the Serial Killer, Social & Legal Studies, 15(4), 552-569. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663906069547
Warwick, A., & Willis, M. (2007). (eds.) Jack the Ripper: Media, Culture, History. Manchester University Press.
Wiener Kriminal Museum. (2021). Wiener Kriminal Museum. Retrieved 16 September 2021 from http://wien.kriminalmuseum.at/en/news/
Wyatt, B., Leask, A., & Barron, P. (2021). Designing dark tourism experiences: An exploration of edutainment interpretation at lighter dark visitor attractions. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 16(4), 433–449. https://doi.org/10. 1080/1743873X.2020.1858087
Yan, B. J, Zhang, J., Zhang, H.L, Lu, S. J, & Guo, Y. R. (2016). Investigating the motivation–experience relationship in a dark tourism space: A case study of the Beichuan earthquake relics, China. Tourism Management, 53, 108–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.09.014
Yardley, E. (2019). Whitechapel Society presents Dr. Elizabeth Yardley on the Public's Fascination with Serial Killers. Rippercast: The Whitechapel Murders Podcast [Podcast]. Retrieved 4 May 2020, from http://www.casebook.org/podcast/listen.html?id=263
Yardley, E., Lynes, A., Wilson, D., & Kelly, E. (2016). What’s the deal with ‘websleuthing’? News media representations of amateur detectives in networked spaces. Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 14(1), 81-109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659016674045
Yelp (2021a). Jekyll & Hyde. Retrieved 25 August 2022 from https://www.yelp.com/biz/jekyll-and-hyde-edinburgh
Yelp (2021b). Moriarty Bar. Retrieved 25 August 2022 from https://www.yelp.com/biz/moriarty-bar-edinburgh
Yu, J., & Egger, R. (2022). Looking behind the scenes at dark tourism: a comparison between academic publications and user-generated-content using natural language processing. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 17(5), 548-562. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2022.2097011
Zeynalova, F. (2020). Six destinations that every Agatha Christie fans should visit. Retrieved 9 October 2022 from https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2020/12/in-the-footsteps-of-agatha-christie
Ziomek, E. (2018). Aestheticization of Serial Killers in Contemporary Crime Literature and Film. New Horizons in English Studies, 3, 123-136. http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/nh.2018.3.123
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Melanie Smith
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication.
- Texts will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, provided they include an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship, its initial publication in this journal and the terms of the license.
